Page 32 - Encyclopedia Of World History

382 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Indigenous and Colonial Forms of Administration

The following description of the Tiv of Nigeria under This state of affairs has no doubt, arisen partly from
British colonial rule indicates the problems that can the pre-conceived idea of the functions of a clan, such
result when the traditional political and social system as stated by Rivers, but nothing is so dangerous as
of the colonized people is ignored or misunderstood generalisations drawn from the analogy of other parts
and replaced with the hierarchical, centralized system of the world.“The clan plays an important part in the
of the colonizer. political constitution of the community at large. For,
throughout the world, each clan has its own council,
We have seen that the largest political entity known
composed of the older generation of males, which
to them before our arrival was the family-group
transacts all its business.The clan usually has the right
descended from it still lower down the genealogical
to elect its own chiefs, when it has any, and depose
ladder. If therefore, we place one man over a whole
them, without regard to the council of the larger unit
clan—or worse one man over two whole clans—we
of which it forms a part.”
cannot expect this system to work smoothly and it is
If we delete the word “Clan” in this quotation and
asking almost the impossible of a District Head to
substitute for it “Family-group,” we shall obtain a true
expect him to be obeyed implicitly in areas outside his
statement of the Tiv organisation, where the family-
family-group areas, where the people have their own
group is a kind of clan in miniature.
family-group chief. A straw shows which way the
Another reason which has led to the creation of so-
wind is blowing and the fact that one District Head
called district heads, is the European desire for cen-
whom I asked for his clan genealogy was totally
tralisation and the concentration of power in the
ignorant of the most salient facts about the genealogy
hands of one single individual with whom we can
of a family-group area not his own but under his juris-
treat and whom we can hold responsible for the
diction, is abundant evidence that he knew little
behavior of the population under his, shall we say,
about the area in question.
“control”? This is readily comprehensible, for it is
Is it therefore surprising to read the following com-
extremely difficult to deal separately with a large
ment by a District Officer? “The District Head is only
number of independent chiefs. A good example of
a superior sort of family-head, who scarcely recognises
this centralisation and its bad results is to be seen in
himself as responsible for his district except as and
the case of German pre-war Tanganyika.
when instructed by the District Officer, and in some
Source: Abraham, R. C. (1933). The Tiv People. (pp. 160). Lagos: The Government
areas where I have toured, has never been before.” Printer.
nations remained nominally independent but were run needs, as they provided raw materials at low cost and
by puppet governments whose policies were ultimately monopoly markets for European-produced goods. Polit-
controlled by a Western power (as in informal coloniza- ically, the colonial expansion of the mid- to late 1800s
tion). In some cases, the method of governing the colony was fueled by national rivalries in Europe, balance-of-
evolved over time: British India, for example, was initially power concerns, and national pride. The Berlin Confer-
governed through the English East India Company but ence of 1884–1885 provided a political rationale for
was taken over by the British government in 1858. colonization by stipulating that control of a territory
Some experts stress economic factors as the root rested on a colonial power’s occupation of that territory.
causes of European colonialism; others stress political fac- The technological advances of the Industrial Revolu-
tors, and still others a combination of factors. Economi- tion, especially steam ships, railroads, the telegraph, and
cally, the expanding world system in conjunction with the more deadly weapons, made colonization quicker,
Industrial Revolution created greater demand for raw cheaper, and easier. Finally, it should be noted that the
materials and markets for products. Colonies met both ideas of social thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Lewis